Monday, October 30, 2006

All you ever wanted to know about the Burj Dubai - soon to be world's tallest building

I've been following the construction in Dubai with the new man made islands (The Palm) and what will be the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Dubai. The best source of information for the building is the Burj Dubai skyscraper website. They update not only their building but skyscraper news from around the world. It has pictures, 3-d models, stats, and everything you need or want to know about the project.

A recent AFP news articleshed some light on the construction of the tower and the working conditions by the labor force. Here's some info on the progress of the tower:

With two stories added every week, Burj Dubai is taking shape as the centerpiece of a 20-billion-dollar venture featuring the construction of a new district, "Downtown Burj Dubai," that will house 30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall.

Dubai circa 1950

"At the moment, we've got around 2,500 workers on the tower site alone. We expect that to peak about a year from now at over 5,000 ... And for the whole site ... at any point in time, when the whole Downtown Burj Dubai district is under construction, there will be 20,000 men working here," Sang said.

He said the average wages of the south Asian laborers, who work in summer in temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), are "probably in the range of a couple of hundred US dollars a month" for a shift of "eight to 10 hours" a day, six days a week.

The Burj Dubai will clock in at 800 meters tall. The Eiffel Tower goes around 300 meters tall for a good comparison. However, if plans go the way they do in Asia, China will beat the Burj Dubai in height soon.